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Tough times for the global tourism sector
GENEVA - Millions of jobs in the
world tourism sector have been lost due to political
turmoil, the global economic downturn and growing unease
among many travelers with little prospect of any
recovery in employment in the sector before 2005,
according to a new report by the International Labor
Office (ILO).
The new ILO report entitled Impact
of the 2001-2002 Crisis on the Hotel and Tourism
Industry, available on the ILO website, said that during
2001 and 2002, tourism-related businesses shed some 6.6
million jobs worldwide - putting one out of every 12
workers in the sector out of a job.
"The
expected recovery of the tourism industry in 2002 simply
did not occur," said Juan Somavia, Director-General of
the ILO. "After several years of 4 percent growth or
more, stagnant demand for travel and tourism last year
caused a continued loss of jobs with no sign of a
turnaround in 2003".
The ILO will hold a
regional tripartite meeting on employment in the tourism
industry of the Asia Pacific region in Bangkok, May
13-15, to address the issue of jobs and travel.
The problems facing tourism have had negative
consequences in many countries. Conversely, some
countries, including China, Croatia, Cyprus, Slovenia,
Turkey, Vietnam and others have reported higher numbers
of foreign tourists, apparently due to an influx of
travelers from nearby countries who are opting to say
closer to home on their holidays rather than visit
far-flung places requiring long-haul travel.
As
a result, while industry officials believe there may be
a modest recovery for the travel and tourism sector in
2003, they are forecasting only minimal job gains. This
means the year will likely end with a total of 6.4
million jobs lost since the beginning of the downturn,
the ILO said.
Factors hampering a recovery are
fears of more attacks on tourists such as those that
occurred in Bali and Kenya in 2002, as well as political
developments in the Middle East and elsewhere, changing
consumer travel preferences and the general state of the
global economy, the ILO report said.
According
to the report, the hotel and tourism industry has been
suffering from the combined effects of a general
economic downturn that began in early 2001 and the shock
wave from the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United
States. While economic recession had already brought
down the industry's previously strong 4.5 percent annual
growth rate to well below 4 percent, the industry's
growth rate plunged for the whole year 2001 into
negative territory between -1 and -5 percent.
In
2001, receipts from cross-border tourism dropped by 5.1
percent at constant US dollar prices and the number of
international tourist arrivals worldwide fell by 0.6
percent. The worst losses were felt in the Middle East
and the Americas, particularly North America, where
international tourist arrivals were down by 6.8 percent
in the whole year 2001, but as much as 22.6 percent in
the last four months of that year compared to equivalent
periods of 2000.
New tourism trends also show an
inclination of travelers to stay closer to home. Experts
agree that patterns such as "sea, sand and sun"- and
particularly the desire of many tourists to travel to
faraway, exotic destinations - are likely going out of
fashion. "Developing countries will face a particular
challenge in order to compensate for a decline in long
distance travel", said Somavia. Bali is a good example:
After the terrorist attack, the island's tourism
industry is trying to make up for the declining number
of tourists from Japan, Australia and Western markets by
attracting budget tourists from neighboring countries
like Singapore and Malaysia, as well as domestic
visitors from Indonesia's main island of Java.
One of the tourism markets most affected by the
September 11 terror attacks is that of the United
States, with international tourist arrivals having
fallen on average more than 30 percent from the level of
the same period the previous year, the report said.
Travel expenditure dropped by 5.8 percent in 2001. There
was still no recovery in consumer expenditure levels on
travel in the US in 2002 (-0.4 percent). Although
overall travel expenditures in the US are expected to
rise by 5 percent in 2003, reaching the mark of US$555.6
million, this result would be still below that of the
year 2000.
In the United States alone,
employment in the whole industry was down 5.8 percent in
2001, with an estimated 1.1 million jobs lost.
Two-thirds of the estimated 760,000 expected job losses
for 2002 in US metropolitan areas are in travel, tourism
and related sectors.
Countries near the United
States also received significantly fewer tourists in
2001 than at the same time of the year before, eg Canada
(-19 percent), Cuba (-26 percent), the Dominican
Republic (-25 percent), Mexico (-24 percent) and Jamaica
(-20 percent).
In Europe, countries expecting a
high proportion of tourists originating from the United
States experienced steep declines in international
tourism in 2001, including the United Kingdom (-12
percent), Germany (-17 percent), Switzerland (-16
percent), Italy (-11 percent) and Austria (-9 percent).
Elsewhere, the Philippines (-25 percent) and Australia
(-21 percent) registered double-digit declines.
Other countries experienced a significant drop
in their 2001 total tourist numbers because, rightly or
wrongly, they were associated with security risks not
necessarily connected to the September 11 events. These
countries included Egypt (-16 percent), Nepal (-22
percent) and Sri Lanka (-16 percent). Morocco's tourist
industry recorded a 43 percent revenue drop in January
2002 compared to January 2001.
Among the rare
winners in 2001 were countries in Southern Europe, a
region that continues to receive higher numbers of
foreign tourists than in previous years, probably
because they provide a convenient alternative to
long-haul destinations for many European tourists. Thus
Turkey (+12 percent), Croatia (+12 percent), Slovenia
(+11 percent), Spain (+3 percent), Greece (+2 percent)
and Cyprus (+1 percent) all benefited in 2001.
Another winner was China, which experienced an
impressive growth in both domestic and inbound tourism.
Total annual revenue from tourism has grown on average
by 12.7 percent over recent years, much faster than the
country's gross domestic product, which grew by an
average rate of 7.4 percent.
(ILO
News)
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